


Battle Writing Fics

by animenutcase



Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mild Crossover, Some Slashy Hints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 42
Words: 17,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animenutcase/pseuds/animenutcase
Summary: Short stories written from the battle_writing Livejournal community from 2007 to 2012. I was given 41 themes (and one Wildcard, which let me choose a theme), each associated with a particular studentSome of them have been cleaned up.





	1. Yoshio Akamatsu - Lust

**Author's Note:**

> This one had a slight nod to the V7 Canon of br_roleplay. It was originally posted on January 11th, 2011.

Yoshio didn't consider himself an otaku.

He just really liked video games. Especially the girls in the RPGs. Not only were their costumes really sexy, but they were really strong, too. He'd heard a lot about otaku from Takiguchi, who explained that a lot of them had giant pillows of the characters they liked.

"Not that I'm that kind of guy!" Takiguchi had quickly added. "But I have some friends in other classes that are kind of like that."

Yoshio wasn't really into anime, but he really DID like a lot of characters. Seeing the strength of the female characters in his game made him feel like he could be stronger, too. He didn't think he could be a big, strong martial artist like Sugimura or the kind of guy that girls swooned over like Mimura or Nanahara, or even just a really tough guy like Kawada. But a lot of the female characters weren't tough either. Some of them just oozed confidence, and that was enough for him.

Still, Yoshio was still a teenage boy. He was at an age where it was healthy to have a sexual fantasy or two. He knew this. He just couldn't help but be a little concerned where, instead of a cute girl like Yukiko Kitano or a sexy girl like Takako Chigusa, his healer from Finest Fantasy XIII showed up in his dreams instead.

It had been a simple dream. They'd gone on a date, and she had invited him up to her room when he'd woken up. He was a bit distressed, not realizing just how tame his dream was compared to others. Or maybe he'd just figured it was a slippery slope and that soon he'd be dry-humping a dakimakura of her, referring to her as his "waifu" and having a flame war on the internet when the manga adaption gave her a love interest. 

In a desperate attempt to find an actual girl to crush on, he walked up to Takako Chigusa and asked (perhaps a bit too quickly)

"YouwannacomeoverandplayFFXIII!?"

Chigusa had just given him a look and asked "What?"

As Yoshio ran away, he didn't hear her say "No really, what? I couldn't understand you!"

"Did he say Finest Fantasy XIII?" Yukiko asked eagerly, walking up. "I saw Yumiko's brother playing it and it looked like a lot of fun, so I started playing and I really liked it!"

Chigusa simply shrugged, looking a little disappointed, not sure if she wanted to admit she had played it, too.


	2. Mizuho Inada - Rocky Relations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was my second to last fic for the challenge. It was originally posted on June 4th, 2012. I originally commented that it was my new headcanon that Megumi and Satomi were cousins, but now I'm not sure about it. Maybe distant cousins.

Mizuho knew they were rocks, she just didn't care.

That much was obvious to Megumi. However, because rocks were not sentient, they were not capable of sexual attraction or reproduction. Which meant that Mizuho's endeavors were an exercise in futility.

Megumi tried calling Kaori for advice, only to learn from her mother that she was at a meeting for the Kenzaki Junta (or whatever his name was) fan club. She sighed and decided to call someone else.

Her cousin, Satomi, was busy "studying", according to her aunt, which meant that she was holed up in her room reading manga. How she managed to remain a top student was a mystery to Megumi.

"Megumi!" Mizuho burst into the kitchen while Megumi was debating who to call next. "I just realized something important!"  
"And what would that be, Mizuho?" Megumi asked calmly.  
"I haven't thought of any names for the children!"  
"I don't know, how about something like, Taro or something?"  
"But that's so boring!"  
"Don't worry about. You'll have plenty of time to think about it while the female rock is pregnant."

Megumi was annoyed. Mizuho was like one of those magical, energetic girls that always fixed up the male lead's life in stories, but most of the time her quirks were downright obnoxious. Lately, it seemed like Mizuho's insanity knew no bounds and it was getting harder and harder for Megumi to put up with it. Just the other day her sister complained that Mizuho had used her shampoo to make a mural for... whatever it was that she'd made it for. And that was on the days that she could understand what Mizuho was doing at all. Megumi understood that Mizuho's parents were rather... eccentric themselves and that a lot of times Mizuho would crash at either her or Kaori's house because one or both of them had forgotten to take their medication and locked her out of the house, but...

Megumi sighed and walked up the stairs to her room. When she was walked in the room, she froze.

When she'd left, there were only two rocks on the floor. Now there were over a dozen.

"See, Megumi, I told you I needed to think of names!" Mizuho scolded her.

Once again, Mizuho was a mystery that Megumi couldn't quite solve.


	3. Keita Iijima - Follow the Leader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're following the leader wherever he may go!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With Keita, I was given a Wildcard, which meant that I got to choose the theme I used for him. For some reason, I ended up picking "Follow the Leader". It was originally posted on April 23rd, 2012, along with Mayumi Tendou's.

Whether or not it was a good thing, Keita had spent his whole life following others. His father was like that, too. He never spoke up at work whenever he had reservations about something. Even when it was obvious that whatever his co-workers wanted to do would lead to disaster. And when that inevitably happened, his father would just shrug. Iijima Kouta was simply not meant to be a leader. As a result, neither was his son.

Keita had been drawn to Shinji from the very beginning. Mimura Shinji practically bled confidence and leadership, though he had to admit that he was extremely irresponsible, which was probably why he wasn’t chosen as a class rep, but really, who would want to be a class rep, anyway?

Still, with Shinji, it was a double-edged sword. That same confidence occasionally led to some fights, and some of those fights were clearly avoidable to anyone with a working brain. On that afternoon at the arcade, Keita saw those punks picking a fight. They were just common street thugs. It was obvious that Shinji would be able to take care of them himself. So Keita decided to hang back and make himself scarce until the fight was over. He tried to play it cool, but he could tell that Shinji knew that he’d stayed away on purpose.

But did that really excuse Shinji distancing himself from him after that? Was it really that bad for Keita to try to make his own decisions?

Keita wouldn’t get his answer until May of their third year of junior high.


	4. Yukie Utsumi - Falling Fast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was originally posted on March 14th, 2011, along with Shogo Kawada's. I decided to go for a double pun with this one.

Yukie had always been a romantic.

Her first love came in kindergarten. Her heart had soared when she heard his laughter. She was convinced that one day they'd be married and have a dozen children.

Then he'd pulled on her braid. That was the end of that. No one touches Utsumi Yukie's braid.

In second grade, she'd met the transfer student, a boy named Shoutarou. Already showing signs of being a class rep, she reached out to him and he played with them at free time. He had some unusual hobbies, but he was so sweet. Before long, Yukie's diary was filled with his name.

A month later, he confessed to her that he liked that strange Inada girl who was always rambling about Mazda cars for some reason. A year later, the same thing happened, but with her best friend Haruka (who turned him down, just so you know).

At the age of nine, Utsumi Yukie swore off love.

Four years later, in the spring of her first year in junior high, she saw him. Nanahara Shuuya was a loud, friendly boy. You'd have to be deaf, blind, _and_ stupid not to notice him. He was a handsome young man, who didn't have quite as many fans as Mimura Shinji (who by the way, was nowhere close to being Yukie's type), but Yukie was sure that by the end of their first year, the number of girls with a crush on him was in the double digits.

It was a sunny afternoon when they first met. Yukie (ever the responsible type) had been delivering some papers to the teacher's office on the third floor when she saw him. His hair had been long (not as much as it was now, but longer than you'd expect). He and his friend Kuninobu Yoshitoki were goofing around on the stairs. He looked up at her and gave her the most dazzling smile she'd ever seen.

In retrospect, swooning at the top of the stairs hadn't been the best idea, but the way Shuuya's arms felt around her shoulders as he helped her to the nurse's office had made it all worth it.


	5. Tatsumichi Ooki - Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say about it. I made a slight error when I first posted it: I said it was novel-verse, but I called the teacher Kamon instead of Sakamochi. It was originally posted on August 9th, 2007.

“Tatsumichi, you’re like a rock.”

Tatsumichi stared at Fumiyo. This was the first time they’d spoken since becoming classmates and she was comparing him to a non-living, unfeeling object?

Noticing his confused look, she quickly responded.

“I mean, you’re really calm. You get hurt all the time, but you never seem like you’re in pain when you come here.”

Oh.

And it was true. Tatsumichi was a very laid-back person. He chalked it up to his parents. His father once told him to save his temper and tears for things that were worth getting upset over.

“Besides,” his mother had added. “If you get upset or angry, chances are you’ll only make the situation worse.”

His conversation with Fumiyo had happened in April, shortly after the school year started. It was May now, and it didn’t matter how he reacts. He was still in the Program.

After leaving the school, he ran off in a random direction and came across a small neighborhood. He was cautious about entering a house, since he didn’t know if anyone was in there. Or if that person was trustworthy. Then again, there were only four other people out by the time he’d left.

Not taking any chances, he decided to enter a small tool shed in the backyard of one house. Soon, he was asleep, only to be awakened by Sakamochi’s announcement.

Glancing at his map, he muttered a few choice words before exiting the shed.

Soon, he found himself walking along a path into the woods. Everyone had left the school by now. He knew that a number of them were not to be trusted. Several times he’d heard a sound and quickly turned to find nothing there. The pressure was starting to get to him.

Suddenly he stopped. Two people stood farther down the path. It was a boy and a girl. Squinting, he realized it was Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa.

They stared at each other for what felt like an hour. Tatsumichi wondered if they could be trusted. This was Shuya Nanahara, after all. If anyone could be trusted, it would be him. If Tatsumichi couldn’t trust Shuya, he couldn’t trust anyone.

Before he could decide his course of action, he saw Shuya reach for the knife in his belt. That was it, then. There was no one he could trust. If he wanted to stay alive, he’d have to kill. Gripping his axe tightly, he charged.

The rock had been shattered.


	6. Megumi Etou - Insanity

Megumi's first close encounter with an insane person happened when she was 5 years old. Her mother had originally worked at a mental hospital and Megumi often found herself going there after school with her sister to wait for their mother to finish her shift. One afternoon, Megumi had gone to the bathroom. To get to the restroom, you had to pass by the lobby. That particular afternoon, one of the patients had left her room and was staring at her.

"Are you here with your mommy?" The woman had asked.  
"My sister and I are waiting for her to finish her shift!" Megumi had answered cheerfully, despite her sister having told her many times not to talk to strangers, especially not people at Mom's workplace.  
"What about your daddy?" The woman had asked with an odd smile.  
"He's at work, too!" Megumi chirped, not thinking that the woman was behaving oddly.  
"Does your daddy love your mommy?"  
"Uh-huh!" Megumi nodded. "He took her on vacation for their annimaversary!"  
"I see..." The woman began to move toward her.

"Megumi!"  
"Ninomiya-san!"

Megumi's sister and two of the nurses both appeared to come out of nowhere, but Megumi later realized that they had been watching her speak to the woman. While the nurses restrained the woman, Megumi's sister grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her back to the room where they'd been waiting. Her sister had angrily explained that the woman was under investigation for murdering her children after discovering her husband was having an affair.

Megumi's second encounter with an insane person had happened when she was nine. Once again, it was at the hospital where her mother worked. At this point, her sister had started junior high and was busy with after-school clubs, so Megumi was alone.

It was an honest mistake. Megumi hadn't noticed that she'd gotten off on the wrong floor, so she was embarassed when she walked into one of the patient's rooms.  
The man appeared to be in his early twenties and was speaking to a woman (his girlfriend? Megumi wasn't sure). She tried to excuse herself, but the man had laughed and said she could stay.

"Kei-chan..." His guest was less eager. "I don't think..."  
"It's better if everyone knows, right?" The man had laughed. "About my power."  
"Power?" Megumi had tilted her head, curious.

The man explained that he had god-like powers. If he wished someone dead, they would die. Megumi reacted to this as any normal person would: She laughed.  
"You're looking at me like I'm crazy." The man had glared at her, stopping her laughter in its tracks. "Should I wish you dead, too?"

The man stared at her for a moment before nodding his head as though he'd made up his mind.

"Hmm... Your throat. Just like him."  
"Kei-chan!" His guest warned.

"Maebara-san, it's time for-" One of the nurses walked in. "Megumi-chan!?"  
The nurse quickly grabbed Megumi by the shoulder and hustled her out of the room.  
"Be careful around sharp objects!" The man laughed after them.

The incident had shaken Megumi so bad that her mother finally just quit and began working at a regular hospital.

Megumi was ten when she encountered an insane person for the third time. Her sister had gotten a bad touch of pneumonia and had been hospitalized at the same hospital her mother worked at. That day, after school let out, she went straight to the hospital. Her mother had only started working there the year prior (plus Megumi was old enough to be home alone), so Megumi was still getting used to finding her way around. Once again, she got off on the wrong floor and entered the room of a stranger. But she didn't realize it immediately at first.  
After all, her sister was rather tall and was going through a tomboyish phase, so her hair was short.

 _Should she be out of bed?_ Megumi thought to herself when she saw her standing by the bed, staring out the window. Still, Megumi felt like surprising her sister with a hug from behind.

The next thing she knew, she was lying on the cold, hard floor with someone's hands around her neck. As she was being strangled, Megumi realized that the person wasn't her sister, but a boy covered in bandages with dead eyes. Thankfully, her screams alerted the nurses. The boy was pulled off of her and she was quickly taken out. If Megumi had been paying attention, she would have noticed that the nurse who saved her was the same woman who had been visiting the insane man the year before.

 _Crazy people are scary._ Megumi thought to herself when her mother arrived and flung her arms around her in tears. _I never want to see one again._

Unfortunately, fate was not very kind to Megumi.

Her fourth and final encounter with an insane person happened when she was fifteen years old. This happened far away from a hospital. It was late at night, and she was sitting under a table in an abandoned house. It wasn't a stranger, but rather a person she knew and feared.

 

Sometimes insanity just follows a person everywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Anniversary" was spelled wrong on purpose. If you're familiar with Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, you'll likely realize that the man Megumi first meets is Keiichi from that series. Specifically, the Keiichi from the Tatarigoroshi (Curse Killing) Arc. The woman with him is Shion, and the man Keiichi is referring to is Tomitake, who kills himself by accident via tearing out his own throat. As for the boy who attacks her, well, you'll meet him again in Yuichiro's part. This one was posted on November 17th, 2010.


	7. Toshinori Oda - Endgame

Toshinori Oda was one of the elite.

That was the reason for why he had to survive here. He'd already taken down many enemies. He'd fought hard, but here he was, close to the end. All of the other players were simply unfit to survive. Only he, Oda Toshinori was fit to survive to the end. Akamatsu? The fatass was too slow and too dumb to make it past the second round.

Hatagami? Stupid jock didn't know his place. He'd charged right in, leaving himself wide open. It's little wonder he was the first to be killed.

Iijima. Coward refused to leave his hiding spot. If you don't move, you'll be found eventually.

Motobuchi was too caught up in his own plans to know that all it took was one idiot (in this case, it was Hatagami) to send a plan straight to hell.

But not him. Oda Toshinori was far smarter than the rest of those fools. Those morons didn't know the rules of the game, and they paid for it. It served them right for thinking they could survive when they were going up against him.

Really, it was only seemed fitting that he would win. Oda walked triumphently through the woods, thinking of what he would when he won. Probably thank his comrades for being so stupid that it could only have been him to win. Suddenly, Oda heard a rustle in the bush.

"Gotcha!" Yuichiro Takiguchi jumped out, his gun aimed, and fired.

This was the end. Oda could see his life flashing before his eyes. How could he have _lost_ , especially to a loser otaku like Takiguchi?

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Oda, _chill_. It's just a game."  
"FUCK YOU!" Oda screamed into his microphone, not seeing his fellow players wince over the computer. "FUCK YOUR GAME, FUCK YOUR MMORPG, and FUCK YOU!  
"You already said, "fuck you", Oda." Akamatsu added helpfully.

"GET BENT, FATASS!" Oda yelled, giving his computer screen the middle finger before pushing the button to turn it off.

 **elite4444number1** has left the room.

"...Why did we invite him to play with us, again?" Hatagami asked his friends with a sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly have no idea whether or not MMORGs were really a thing back when Battle Royale was published, but I couldn't resist. Fact: Oda is actually a lot of fun to write. This one was published on January 22nd, 2011.


	8. Sakura Ogawa - Nurture

Kazuhiko Yamamoto loved Sakura Ogawa.

Mayumi Tendou understood this as well as anyone. Still, she had to laugh when Kazuhiko explained that he was at the police station because he'd gotten into a fight with some punks who he had heard badmouthing her.

"Sakura's a wonderful person!" He protested when she did. "She's kind, polite... She'd make a great wife and mother!"  
"Getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren't we, Yamamoto?" Mayumi raised an eyebrow, still trying to hold in her laughter. "It's a little early to be thinking about marriage, don't you think? Especially to someone like Sakura."

"And what do you know about Sakura?" Kazuhiko gave her a suspicious look.  
"Oh, the stories I could tell." Mayumi grinned. "We're next door neighbors, you know. And since it doesn't look like our parents are going to get here anytime soon, I might as well."

Kazuhiko, who hadn't met Sakura prior to their first year of junior high, shifted uncomfortably in his seat, unsure if he wanted to hear more. Mayumi chuckled.

"Back in fourth grade, we had to take care of this plant. Sakura was totally inept at it, and it was dead within the week." Mayumi laughed at the memory. "And don't think she was just this sweet, innocent little princess."

"What..." Kazuhiko gulped. "...What do you mean?"  
"On our first day of kindergarten, one of the boys (I think it might have been Niida, now that I think about it) made fun of her pigtails and she punched him in the face. Not slapped, not shoved, she literally punched him."

She paused to chuckle at the memory.

"They called her parents and her mom never let her wear pigtails again."

Kazuhiko stared in shock. Was that why Sakura always wore her hair short? No, that's impossible.

"You're making this up."   
"It's a pretty well-known story among the people who were in our class." Mayumi shrugged. "If you ask her about it, she'll probably tell you. She probably just didn't bring it up because that was around the time her dad died."

Kazuhiko opened his mouth to protest further when Mayumi's mother walked in.

"Mayumi." She said coldly. "We're leaving."  
"See you at school, Yamamoto-kun!" She chirped pleasantly as Kazuhiko glared after her, still not quite believing her story.

It wasn't until later that Kazuhiko realized he hadn't asked what Mayumi was doing there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up being connected to Kazuhiko's and Mayumi's. Kazuhiko, I can understand, but I'm still not sure how Mayumi got in there. Sakura doesn't physically appear in this one, but she does in Kazuhiko's. This one was posted on October 2nd, 2010.


	9. Shogo Kawada - Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She smiled and he looked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was posted on March 14th, 2011, along with Yukie Utsumi's. This one starts off angsty, but gets kind of silly toward the end.

He could see it. He was sure that anyone else would be able to see it, too, whether it was Mimura the genius, Seto the clown, or Inada the nutjob. Nakagawa's feelings for Nanahara were clear.

Shogo was honest with himself. He could tell that he was jealous of the two of them. It had only been about a year since Keiko, and the wound was still there, still deep. Nanahara was lucky that he'd got a girl who believed in him so fully.

Nanahara told him the story of his friend Kuninobu and how he'd promised himself that he'd look after the girl he liked. Shogo had grinned to himself, wondering if that was really the case. Is Nanahara sure that that was the only reason he'd vowed to look after her?

Nakagawa _was_ rather cute in her own way. While Keiko was beautiful in how calm and confident was in herself, Nakagawa was cute in that shy, doesn't-know-how-cute-she-is kind of way.

Now that he thought about, Nanahara was kind of girly looking too, with his long hair.

Shogo had been surprised by just _how_ optimistic Nanahara was. Even in his last game, he doubted any of his classmates really believed in each other. Or maybe that was just Kawada's cynical mind talking? And while there were a few guys who had promised to protect their girlfriends or crushes or whatever, Nanahara was the first who was trying to protect his _friend's_ crush (another reason why Shogo was sure Nanahara had more than one reason to be sticking with Nakagawa). You just don't see a lot of people like that nowadays.

Nakagawa was pretty lucky, Shogo decided.

Then he mentally backtracked.

Nakagawa was lucky in that she had someone willing to stick with her and protect her, that's all.

Shogo nodded to himself, satisfied. It wasn't that he was jealous of Nakagawa having Nanahara's affections or anything.

Really.


	10. Izumi Kanai - Girl Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izumi told her friends she never repeated gossip.

Izumi had never been the type to gossip. When her friends confided their secrets in her, she kept them to herself. Whenever she heard a rumor about anyone, she listened, but never repeated it. Coming from an upper class family, she’d been taught to be ladylike from a young age. And one important rule for being a lady is to always consider the feelings of others. It made sense to Izumi. People naturally exaggerate details, so whatever her friends had heard may not have been what actually happened.

Sometimes stories that had no truth to them at all found their way around school. Takako had been furious when Niida didn’t deny the rumors that they were dating. Izumi later found out that a girl in class C made the rumor up because she liked a boy who had a crush on Takako. Or at least that’s what she’d heard from Fumiyo, who had heard it from Yuka. Izumi could only imagine how that must feel. To have people saying that you’re dating a boy you can’t stand.

Perhaps that was why Izumi has never been particularly close to Yuka. She didn’t hate her, and they had normal, friendly conversations, but her constant gossip about who liked who was a bit tiring.

One thing Izumi noted was that guys don’t really gossip (with the notable exception of Shou Tsukioka, but sometimes Izumi wondered if he was in a category of his own). They simply repeat what they’ve heard or seen. Only girls talked about the words and actions of others from what she could see. And sometimes that lead to trouble. There was a girl in class A that was a real tomboy. She played a lot of sports and had a lot of guy friends. Some girls who liked her friends got jealous and arranged for some high school students to… “take care of her” if you could call it that.

Girls could be so cruel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original version of this had some implications of rape at the end, but I decided to change it slightly so it's not really clear what happened. The girl might have simply gotten beat up. This story was posted on June 30th, 2007.


	11. Kazuo Kiriyama - Photographs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look at this photograph! Every time I do it makes me laugh!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of these stories are set within the manga or novel. This one is set in the movie. It was originally posted on May 24th, 2012.

Kazuo Kiriyama was not crazy.

He simply did not see the inherent value of human life like others. It's like life itself is a game, and if you aren't strong enough, you'll lose and be killed.

He didn't understand how other people developed emotional attachments to others. Wasn't one person simply an instrument or tool for another? Likewise, wasn't that person a tool for someone else? That made more sense to him than simply caring about someone who might feel nothing for you in return.

He didn't particularly like having his picture taken either. It just seemed silly that his parents wanted something to remember what he looked like as a child. Particularly after he came home after the Program and they tried to have him institutionalized.

His classmates had this stupid obsession with pictures, too. Shortly before the Program, they'd been taking all sorts of pictures of everyone. "But it's our last year where we're all classmates!", they'd said. Kazuo was lucky that he didn't share such attachments to them like with the others. It actually felt kind of nice to mow them down. When he learned of a chance to cut down some other hapless class, he jumped at it.

The class from Shiroiwa Junior High was certainly more interesting than his class had been. One girl had been shot in the arm, another had gotten herself killed by Kitano before the game even started, and a boy had his collar detonated. His friend didn't take it very well. He'd have gotten himself killed if his other friends hadn't held him back. Why bother? They were all going to end up killing each other anyway.

It was stupid. Even after he'd calmed down, the boy (who his friends had called "Nanahara") stayed by the body of his friend, as though it would somehow bring him back to life. He had something in his hands, but from where Kazuo was sitting, he couldn't see what. It wasn't until Kazuo's name was called and he moved to the front of the classroom that he saw it: A polaroid photograph. Kazuo guessed that it had been taken recently, possibly even on the bus before everyone had been knocked out. He could see Nanahara, his friend, and a few of the other students in it.

He wanted to laugh. Nanahara was the same sort of sentimental type that Kazuo loved to take down. Suddenly he was glad that Nanahara's friends had stopped him from getting himself killed. He definitely wanted to be the one to kill Nanahara. Have him make an expression that Kazuo would _really_ want to preserve in a photo.

And if circumstances were favorable, he'd take his time doing it.


	12. Yukiko Kitano - Intelligence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was posted on January 6th, 2011. Not much to say about it. It takes place in their second year of junior high, so it's about a year before the Program.

Yukiko Kitano was not the smartest girl in class.

That was Satomi Noda, in case you didn't know (by which we mean, in case you live under a rock). Everyone knew that, particularly the teachers. That was why Yukiko and Yumiko were here.

Here being their classroom after school, being tutored by Satomi. Neither of them had done particularly well on the last exam, so the teachers had asked Satomi to tutor them (Motobuchi being busy with class rep duties and Kiriyama being Kiriyama).

"Wow!" Yukiko exclaimed. "I got it right!"  
"Good job, Yuki!" Yumiko grinned.  
"You're doing well." Satomi smiled. "Now, let's see those reports before you leave."  
"I can't believe even _you're_ assigning us reports." Yumiko grumbled as she dug through her bag. "I mean, you're not our teacher!"  
"Our teacher asked me to make sure you were understanding the material." Satomi said seriously as she held her hand out. "I'm having you do these so I can make sure you are. Plus, entrance exams are coming up next year."  
"Satomi would make a good teacher, though!" Yukiko piped up as she handed it over to Satomi. "I'm understanding a lot more than I was!"  
"Yeah." Yumiko admitted sheepishly. "Have you ever thought about being a teacher, Satomi?"

Satomi blushed.

"I'm not so sure." She said with an embarrassed smile. "I mean, teachers have to deal with entire classes. Right now it's just us and... her."

Satomi cautiously looked across the room at "her". With her mature face and spiky hair (plus the fact that there was no one else in the room), there was no mistaking Hirono Shimizu for anyone else.

"Hirono, do you have your report?" Satomi frowned.  
"Sure do, teach." Hirono said pleasantly, but with a hint of sarcasm as she handed her paper to Satomi before strolling out. 

"Yukiko, I have a couple more questions, so..."  
"I'll go on ahead!" Yukiko chirped pleasantly, standing up with her bag.  
"Be careful!" Yumiko called after her.

Yukiko was surprised to see that Hirono hadn't quite left the building yet. As she approached the doors, she realized why: Just as the weather report had predicted, it was raining. 

"Um... Do you not have an umbrella, Hirono?" She asked as she grabbed hers. 

Hirono didn't answer, trying to keep a cool face, but Yukiko thought she saw a small blush.

"If you'd like, I could walk with you until we get to your house." She held out her umbrella.  
"Just the movie theater's fine." Hirono mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm meeting Yoshimi there."

And off they went. Because Hirono was much taller than Yukiko, she was the one holding the umbrella. Yukiko's concern, though, was the thick silence. Yukiko didn't speak to Hirono much, so it felt very awkward walking with her. Yukiko's mind kept telling her to say something, and for some reason she suspected Hirono was thinking the same thing.

"How come you didn't try hard on the report, Hirono?" Yukiko said before she could stop herself, kicking herself for being so blunt.  
"She ain't my teacher." Hirono scoffed. "Only reason I did it at all was because if I didn't _she'd_ tell Hayashida, and _he'd_ tell my parents and then I'd get nagged."

"But don't you want to do better in class?" Yukiko asked. "I mean, I'm not the smartest girl in class, but I'm learning a lot more!"  
"I'm street-smart." Hirono said firmly. "Knowing about how Commodore Perry (supposedly) tried to take over Japan isn't going to help when dealing with some yakuza bitch who claims I stole her man when he's the who paid-"

Hirono paused, as though remembering who she was speaking to.

"All I'm saying is, being a nerd isn't the only way to succeed in life. Or something." 

Yukiko was so caught up in what Hirono was saying, she hadn't noticed the pole.

"You see, that's what I'm saying!" Hirono scolded as Yukiko rubbed her forehead. "You gotta watch for stuff like that."

They walked in silence until they reached the theater.

"Thanks." was the only thing Hirono said as she walked in the theater with a smirk.

Yukiko pondered Hirono's words. It was true that Yukiko didn't have much experience in the real world and that it was likely that it would be very easy for people to take advantage of her.

People like Hirono, who had walked into the movie theater without giving her umbrella back.

Yukiko cursed to herself and rushed into the building.


	13. Yoshitoki Kuninobu - Greed

There are two people in the world that Yoshitoki Kuninobu would kill for.

One of them is Ryoko Anno.

It is a well-known fact that Yoshitoki Kuninobu is best friends with Shuya Nanahara. It is also a well-known fact (well, known to anyone who isn’t named Noriko Nakagawa) that Yoshitoki Kuninobu has a crush on Noriko Nakagawa.

What isn’t so well-known is the fact that Yoshitoki Kuninobu is well-aware of the fact that Noriko Nakagawa had a crush on Shuuya Nanahara. And he would be perfectly okay with it if Shuuya ever decided to return her feelings. After all, he’d still be close to both to them.

Not many people knew this, but Shuuya became very dependent on Yoshitoki when he first arrived at the orphanage. He never realized that Yoshitoki was just as dependent on him.

Most of the orphanage children had been thrown away by their parents like discarded dolls. Ryoko Anno was the closest thing they had to a mother. Yoshitoki was particularly clingy. The other children resented this. He didn’t really have any friends until Shuuya showed up and Ms. Ryoko encouraged him to make friends.

As the boys grew, Yoshitoki secretly became resentful when Shuuya started playing baseball and became popular with the girls, but not for the reasons you would think.

He didn’t like the idea of sharing Shuuya with others. He wanted Shuuya all to himself, and was more than a little relieved when Shuuya quit the team.

Then he entered junior high and began nursing a crush on Noriko Nakagawa. She was kind, polite… a lot like Ms. Ryoko, really. Of course, at some point her feelings for Shuuya became clear to everyone who wasn’t Shuuya. But that was fine with Yoshitoki. Noriko was hardly clingy, so she wouldn’t take away his time with Shuuya.

Yoshitoki didn’t hate Shuuya’s circle of friends, but resented the fact that it monopolized their time together. Most of all he hated seeing Mimura be all touchy-feely with _his_ best friend. Didn’t he have Yutaka?

Yoshitoki knows he’s being selfish by wanting Shuuya all to himself. But at the same time, he is intensely devoted him, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for him.

Shuuya Nanahara knew that Yoshitoki Kuninobu would kill for Ryoko Anno. He did not, however, know that there was one other person he’d do the same for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was kind of hard for me to write. It was posted on March 16th, 2010, along with Yuka Nakagawa's.


	14. Yumiko Kusaka - Report

Yumiko never liked reports.

She's always been an athlete and reports for school took time away from softball. And while Yumiko wasn't stupid, she wasn't the smartest girl in class (That was Satomi, by the way). It wasn't uncommon for her to spend several hours locked in her room with Yukiko, trying to write their reports.

Her older brother complained to their parents that Yumiko always ends up yelling while she writes these reports ("WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT THE FALL OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE!?"), while Yukiko tried to calm her down. But it wasn't Yumiko's fault. It was the teachers' faults for assigning these stupid reports. Her brother's response to this claim was that it _was_ her fault that she yelled and he had his own reports to do.

Scratch that part about Yumiko simply "not liking" reports. She HATED them. She hated them with the passion of two million suns (two million because one million wasn't enough). She wanted to hunt down the bastard who came up with the idea and choke him with his own esophagus.

Yukiko, being the more rational of the two, explained that (1) He was probably dead, (2) He was probably not the only one who came up with the idea, and (3) She'd probably get arrested.

But while she hated these reports, she always did them to the best of her ability. And most of the time she got decent grades. And besides, the reports she hated the most were the ones she wasn't graded on. The ones that were read to her every six hours. The one that had Yukiko's name on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU were Yukiko died and Yumiko didn't. Either Kiriyama didn't check to make sure Yumiko was dead, or Nobu didn't die in the classroom, so Yukiko wasn't able to wait for Yumiko. Who knows? It was posted on March 20th, 2008.


	15. Yoji Kuramoto - Pretty Woman

The first woman in Yoji’s life was his mother. She’d married young (right out of high school, in fact), so she was still in her early thirties when Yoji entered junior high. He and his mother were close, so they often went to the park and got ice cream together.

One day, he invited his new friend Kazushi over to play games.

After his mother had brought snacks for them, Kazushi whispered to him “Damn! You didn’t tell me your mom was a babe!”

Yoji tried to ignore him and play the game, but Kazushi persisted (“Does she walk around in her panties a lot?”). And as he was leaving, he whispered into Yoji’s ear “I think I got a look at her boobs when she was leaning over.”

Needless to say, Kazushi’s first visit to Yoji’s house was also his last.

Truthfully, his mother was the reason he first noticed Yoshimi, who bore a surprisingly close resemblance to her. Not that he’d ever admit that to Yoshimi. That was in fact the reason he took Yoshimi to a love hotel for their first time instead of his house. If his parents came home in the middle of it, not only would they freak out, but Yoshimi might notice that she looked like his mother. Then she’d think he had a mother complex (what was it called again? Odysseus complex?), and think he was a freak.

But what if she got suspicious over why he wouldn’t invite her over? Worse, what if she got Mitsuko and Hirono involved?

“Yoji?” Yoshimi asked, shaking him from his thoughts. “You look pale. Are you sick?”

“…N-no. Just excited about the movie!” He replied with a grin.

“Okay.” She didn’t seem convinced, but was willing to play along for his sake. She gave an identical grin. It was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen on her face.

You know, maybe it didn’t matter if she looks like his mother. All he knew is that he loved her. They walked into the theater, her hand in his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was writing this, I had set out to write something silly, but it ended up turning into fluff at the very end. This ended up happening with Yoshimi's, too. This story was posted on December 16th, 2009. Incidentally, the complex Yoji was talking about is actually an Oedipus complex. Wrong Greek protagonist, but Homer (who wrote The Odyssey) DID write poems based on Oedipus. That's... not actually a very strong connection, since all Homer did was write poems. The original author was Sophocles. THE MORE YOU KNOW~


	16. Kayoko Kotohiki - Rainbow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't come up with the name of Kayoko's mother on my own. I took it from the V7 Canon of br_roleplay. This story is based on the manga and was first posted on December 24th, 2007.

Kayoko, being a very playful child, disliked the rain. To her, it was gloomy and spoiled all of her outdoor plans.

So, when it rained on one of the rare occasions that her father visited the bar, she spent most of the time sulking.

Her mother, Ayame, just sighed.

Her father looked outside. Then he walked over to Kayoko and told her to put her coat on.

"But, it's still raining." Kayoko looked at him incredulously. But she obeyed. She walked outside with her father to see that it was about to stop raining. When it did stop, her father told her to look up.

She looked and was amazed. There was an array of different colors in the sky!

"It's beautiful!" she gasped.  
"And you can only see it after the rain." Her father told her matter-of-factly.

From that day on, whenever it rained, she would eagerly sit by the window waiting for it to stop. Even during the Program, she patiently waited for the sky to clear to show her what would most likely be the last rainbow she would ever see. And she was happy.


	17. Hiroshi Kuronaga - Competitivity

Kuronaga Hiroshi was a nobody.

He wasn't smart enough to be a top student, and he wasn't athletic enough to be a top athlete. It was frustrating. His older brothers were a genius and a jock. But Hiroshi wasn't blessed like they were.

"It's true that maybe you can't be a top athlete, Yuko, but anyone can do well on the tests if they study hard enough." He'd heard the class rep, Utsumi say to Sakaki behind him one day. He almost turned around and told her to go fuck herself, because trying hard didn't amount to shit. Anyone who succeeded did so because they were predisposed to being smart or strong. Everyone else was just resigned to be crushed underneath their feet.

It was just by chance that he'd seen Kiriyama's gang one day. He hadn't been looking for a fight, but apparently some punks from a nearby school had been. Hiroshi had been standing nearby, and they'd thought he was one of them.

Obviously, they'd won. They'd had Kiriyama with them, after all. Still, it had felt good when Sasagawa had slapped him on the back and said "Nice right hook!"

The truth was that the guy had just gotten distracted, and Hiroshi had taken advantage of the opportunity to punch him. Sasagawa had simply glanced in their direction when it happened. That was all.

Still, even a compliment based on a coincidence was better than nothing at at all. Being known as a delinquent was better than being known for nothing. Maybe hanging around Kiriyama wouldn't be so bad.

Hiroshi still felt that it was better than nothing, even when Kiriyama filled him with bullets. He'd waited for Sasagawa to leave, and followed him to the meeting place, but he never deluded himself into thinking he could escape or win.

Kuronaga Hiroshi was, after all, a nobody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have much to say about this one. It took me awhile to try writing it since I had a hard time finding competitivity in a dictionary. It was posted on May 30th, 2012 along with Satomi Noda's.


	18. Yuko Sakaki - Common Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Common sense is not so common.

“Is it just the three of us today?” Yuko looked curiously at Satomi and Noriko, who were sitting under the tree. “I thought Yukie was going to be eating with us?”

Yuko knew that Chisato was attending a wedding, Haruka was at a volleyball tournament, and Yuka was out with a nasty cold, but Yukie had been in class that morning.

“She was going to, but Motobuchi came rushing out here and dragged her to the student council meeting she’d forgotten about.” Satomi said simply as she opened her lunchbox. “Honestly, for such a responsible girl, she has no common sense.”

“Now, now…” Noriko said gently. “Yukie works harder than almost anyone I know. It should be okay for some things to slip her mind occasionally.”

“By the way, Yuko…” Satomi glanced at Yuko with a curious look on her face. “Where’s your lunch?”

“Oh!”

Yuko had been in such a hurry to get to the tree that she’d forgotten it in the classroom. She quickly apologized to Satomi and Noriko before heading inside.

As she approached the classroom, she suddenly heard a loud noise. It sounded like a musical instrument. A guitar, perhaps?

She peered into the classroom. Standing near the front by the window was Nanahara Shuuya. In his hands was an old-looking guitar, one that he was playing like he didn’t have a care in the world. Didn’t he know that he could get in trouble for playing that in school? Or at all?

“Shuuya, you might want to knock it off. You’re scaring the lady.” A voice said suddenly from within the classroom, in a part that Yuko couldn’t see. Startled, Yuko jumped away from the door.

The voice laughed and Yuko heard footsteps before the door opened. As it turned out, the voice belonged to Kuninobu Yoshitoki, Shuuya’s best friend. Oh, that made sense. The two were almost always together.

“I forgot my lunch and why are you playing the guitar?” Yuko stammered before she could stop herself, her face turning red as soon as she realized how strange she had sounded.

“I mean, it’s against school rules… And it’s illegal!” Yuko quickly explained when Shuuya and Yoshitoki gave her odd looks. “It’d be better to at least save it for when you’re at home… Common sense, you know?”

She gave them a nervous grin. Shuuya laughed.

“Music is supposed to be heard, you know?” He said with a smile that was downright dazzling. “Besides, Mimura’s always saying that common sense is dead. I don’t see any point in not making music because of some stupid law.”

“I think what Elvis is trying to say is that he enjoys making music and isn’t going to stop doing what he loves just because the law tells him to, even if it doesn’t make sense to.” Yoshitoki grinned.

Yuko was surprised. If what she’d heard from the girls was true, Shuuya had been an excellent baseball player in elementary school, but that he’d suddenly quit. Was there some deeper reason for that?

“Sakaki, is this your lunch?” Yuko was snapped out of her thoughts by Shuuya, who she realized had walked over to her desk and pulled her lunch out.

“P-please don’t look in other peoples’ desks without permission!” Yuko exclaimed as she stormed over and yanked it out of his hand.

“Sorry, sorry…” Shuuya laughed again. “Have a good lunch.”

Yuko was still flustered as she left the classroom, but there was a slight bounce in her step the rest of the way back to the tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuko mentioned that she sort of thought Shuuya was cool in the novel, which to me suggests that she's sort of attracted to him, but it's not quite a full-blown crush. This was posted on April 13th, 2012.


	19. Ryuhei Sasagawa - Arrogance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To tell the truth, Ryuhei couldn't stand him.

If there was one thing that pissed Ryuhei off more than anything, it was some punk strutting about like he owned the place. That was why Ryuhei first picked a fight with Mitsuru on their first day of junior high. Admittedly, he hadn't expected to get his ass handed to him. That was when the seniors showed up. He knew they hadn't come to help him. They were just looking for some freshman acting up so they had an excuse to assert their authority.

Even though he expected it, it was still pretty disturbing to see them break Mitsuru's fingers. And they acted like they had the right to, too. That was when the man Ryuhei would come to hate the most stepped in.

Kazuo Kiriyama saved them from a world of hurt. But the cool, calculated way he did it pissed Ryuhei off. He didn't want to be in the man's debt, but what could he do? He hung around, waiting for a chance to help Kazuo so he wouldn't be in his debt, but he only fell deeper when Kazuo helped keep his younger brother out of jail. At that point he just resigned himself.

Still, there were times when he almost considered changing his opinion of Kazuo. When he learned they were to be in the Program, he received a note from him telling him to meet a certain point. If this guy had a plan for them to get off the island and out of this seemingly impossible to escape game, maybe he had a good reason to be so arrogant.

When Ryuhei and Hiroshi went to the designated meeting place, they found Kazuo sitting atop a big rock. Izumi Kanai lay dead below. Ryuhei mentally kicked himself. He knew that they'd fallen into a trap. Izumi Kanai hadn't done anything wrong. She was probably scared when she'd run into Kazuo. That he had enough balls to kill a frightened girl was the last straw.

Ryuhei charged with his machine gun, climbing up the rock at that arrogant bastard who would probably defeat him anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one sort of blends the manga (which shows Mitsuru and Ryuhei's first meeting with Kiriyama) and the novel (where Izumi is already dead when Ryuhei and Hiroshi arrive at the meeting place). This was posted on February 22nd, 2008.


	20. Hirono Shimizu - Paranoia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is an AU by necessity. Battle Royale likely takes place in the late 90's, but Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni takes place in 1983. In this story (which was first posted on October 28th, 2011), they're just a few years apart.

Hirono's family used to travel a lot.

Back when she and her parents actually got along, they'd go to all sorts of different places. One of the places Hirono remembered the most vividly was a village in the Gifu prefecture. Some of her relatives lived there and every year in June, there was a festival. Hirono loved the games and the food. To this day the head priestess's dance is burned into her mind. One year, Hirono's distant cousin, Mion, introduced her new friend, Keiichi. Mion's sister Shion snickered and told Hirono that Mion had a crush on him. Hirono laughed. Keiichi was nice and all, but he was still a boy, and everyone knew that boys had cooties.

That was the last year that Hirono saw the festival. A couple days after they got back home, Hirono saw her mother watching the news with an intense expression. When she saw Hirono had arrived, she switched the TV off. Despite Hirono's questions about what she was watching, her mother refused to answer. The following year, any questions about when they were going to see the Watanagashi festival were ignored. It wasn't until several years later that Hirono learned about the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster.

She never trusted her parents again.

Her parents had lied to her about what had happened in Hinamizawa. They'd lied about what had happened to their family. If her own parents had lied to her, what about the people around her?

She scoffed when she heard Hiroki Sugimura say he was going to take martial arts. Everyone knew he was a total crybaby. The thought of him actually hitting people was laughable.

In her heart, she didn't even trust Mitsuko and Yoshimi. Yoshimi was a loyal friend, sure, but Hirono was never sure what was going on in her head (plus, she suspected that lately she was more loyal to her boyfriend than her friends). Mitsuko couldn't be trusted for obvious reasons.

_"Together we can get past this. Together."_

Nanahara was a nice guy. Even Hirono could see that. She genuinely wanted to think he was being truthful. However, the cynic in Hirono was telling her that it was for the best that they got separated. She couldn't trust anyone _outside_ of the Program, so why would she be able to trust anyone _in_ the Program?

Plus, her neck was starting to itch.


	21. Hiroki Sugimura - Self Control

Shuuya was an energetic, all-around nice guy. Shinji was a smooth talker who always had a plan. Yutaka knew how to make people laugh and Yoshitoki had to be one of the most loyal friends a guy could have.

Yes, Hiroki felt that he had never had better friends, nor had he ever met people he'd wanted to beat the crap out of more.

Hiroki had never been one to bad-mouth anyone, least of all his friends. But god dammit, sometimes he felt he was the only sane one in the bunch.

Yoshitoki was obviously head-over-heels for Noriko Nakagawa. Anyone could see that from the over enthusiastic way he spoke to her. It was starting to get annoying to see him blush and stutter whenever she walked by or someone mentioned her.

Yutaka was hilarious most of the time. A serious person by nature, Hiroki appreciated the laughter Yutaka brought. It was that same serious nature, however, that made Hiroki irritated by Yutaka's lack of it. Not that he'd ever tell him that.

Shuuya was a really nice guy. Really. His problem was that he was too stupid to see that almost a third of the girls in school want to jump his bones. Hell, not just girls. Even Hiroki, who trained himself as a disciplined martial artist would could resist those sort of urges, could see that some of the boys in other classes who looked out their classroom windows while 3-B was running during P.E. weren't watching the girls.

That brought things to Shinji. Hiroki knew that Shinji was relatively... loose with the girls. But while he'd always been popular with girls, his reputation with them didn't start until their second year, when he and Shuuya were in the same class. After they'd all become friends, Shinji would sometimes casually mention some girl he'd gone on date with or made out with or something. Shuuya would smile and then move on to another subject. Shinji's smirk would falter slightly whenever that happened. Hiroki decided that it was one of two things: 1. Shinji felt a need to compete with Shuuya over who was more popular with the girls, or 2. Shinji wanted Shuuya to get jealous over him and his horndog nature was just his way of repressing those feelings.

Hiroki didn't want to think either was the reason, but sometimes it _did_ seem that Shinji was a bit huggy with Shuuya in a way that he wasn't with anyone else. To Hiroki's own horror, he sometimes felt an urge to yell "For the love of god, just MAKE OUT ALREADY!" when those moments happened.

Hiroki loved his friends. Really. But there were days when his patience was truly put to the test. 

Today is one such day. Shuuya and Yoshitoki are talking excitedly about the class trip, Shinji is implying that he slept with one the fangirls from the basketball game the weekend before, and Yutaka is cracking joke after joke. Hiroki remembers a move his sensei showed him recently. He hasn't perfected the move, so it couldn't possibly hurt too badly.

Hiroki shakes his head, focuses on his book of Chinese poetry, and tries to go to his happy place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one needed some major cleaning since most of it was in present tense when it shouldn't have been. It was posted on January 5th, 2009. Kyoichi Motobuchi's was posted with it.


	22. Mitsuko Souma - Don't Worry, Be Happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yoshimi gives Mitsuko some advice for once.

“Don’t worry, be happy!”

Mitsuko and Hirono stared at Yoshimi, wondering what the hell she’d just said and if she’d lost her mind.

They were sitting in Hirono’s apartment. Mitsuko had been complaining about a rival of hers. Because she had connections to Yakuza, she wasn’t sure how to handle her without dealing with repercussions.

“It’s an English song!” Yoshimi said with a big smile. “It’s about forgetting your troubles and just being happy!”

“Being happy won’t take care of this girl, Yoshimi.” Mitsuko gave her a dark look.

“B-but! If you face your troubles with a positive attitude, you can get through them and it won’t seem as bad!” Yoshimi remarked nervously.

At this, Mitsuko got a thoughtful look on her face. After two minutes, she smiled. It was not the kind of smile that one would like to see on her face. Rather, it was one that enforced her reputation as the leader of the female delinquent group.

A couple of days later, Hirono and Yoshimi were waiting outside an apartment while Mitsuko spoke to the occupant, a young man in his twenties.

“So what were you talking to him about?” Hirono asked as Mitsuko exited the apartment.

“Nothing.” Mitsuko replied with a pleasant smile.

The next day, she was walking by herself when she spotted the girl responsible for all of her trouble. As she crossed the street, a car suddenly sped through and hit her, causing her to fly several feet into the air, before landing by a mailbox, motionless.

As other people panicked and yelled for an ambulance, Mitsuko felt a sense of triumph. Smiling pleasantly, she left the area. Being optimistic really was something! Mitsuko made a note to thank Yoshimi later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously, the theme made it very difficult to come up with a serious story, so I decided not to bother. This one was posted on August 17th, 2007, along with Mitsuru Numai's.


	23. Yutaka Seto - Cherry Blossoms

Yutaka always liked viewing cherry blossoms in bloom. The innocent, child-like nostalgia he felt when that time of year came around stemmed from his first visit (or at least the first that he could remember) at age four. The world had seemed so much bigger back then. To four-year old Yutaka, the trees seemed so big that they were like something out of a storybook. But there was another reason he remembered that visit so vividly. Being a curious child, he’d asked his mother a simple question.

“Why are the cherry blossoms pink?”

Because Yutaka was too young to understand plant life, his mother told him that it was from the blood of fallen warriors. Yutaka had believed her. When Shinji Mimura heard the story, he laughed and set Yutaka straight. Yutaka stopped listening to his mother’s explanations about the world for a while after that. By the time he’d entered his third year of junior high, the story had all but faded from his mind. It did not remain in the back of his mind for very long.

When Mimura had brought him to warehouse, he only briefly noticed that it was surrounded by cherry blossoms. After all, this was a life or death situation. This was no time to stop and smell the flowers. After Kiriyama put several bullets into him, his mother’s words came back to him. His last moments were spent wondering if maybe (just maybe) it was true. Perhaps cherry blossoms _did_ get their color from blood, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the very first story I wrote for the challenge, and it was posted on June 5th, 2007. It's based on the manga. Technically, Yutaka died too quickly for him to realize that he was even being attacked, let alone who was attacking him, but we'll just say he became a ghost.


	24. Haruka Tanizawa - Pride

Haruka took a lot of pride in how she played volleyball.

She chalked it up to her grandfather. He wasn't a professional volleyball player, but he had excellent marksmanship. If he fired 20 shots and hit 19 targets, the first thing he did was complain about wasting ammo.

Of course, that was before the government forced him to close his gun shop and the owner of the shooting range had to shut down.

But Haruka, though a tomboy, is still a girl. Most girls aren't interested in guns. Most tomboys are more interested in sports. She prefers to chase after a white ball and smack it before it hits the ground. She loves the feeling of ecstasy she gets when the ref declares her team the victor. And she can't help but feel a little smug when she sees the expression of the opposing team's ace when the ball lands right next to her after Haruka spikes it. Haruka was awesome, and she damn sure knew it.

"But will volleyball help you on The Program?" her grandfather asks her one day while she visits.

Haruka only laughs and says she won't end up in that situation. Just then, her father arrives to take her home. As her grandfather closes the door, she notices some strange marks on her grandfather's arms. They'd always been there, but she never noticed them before.

It was only five months later that Haruka thought of her grandfather's words again. By then, it was far too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the line about Haruka's grandfather wasting ammo is a shout out to "To Kill A Mockingbird". This was first posted on June 1st, 2008.


	25. Yuichiro Takiguchi - Hospital

Back in fourth grade, Yuichiro's class took a field trip to the Prefecture Hospital. One of the nurses, a pretty lady in her mid-to-late 20's gave them the tour. First, she showed them the front desk where other nurses worked. Then she showed them an empty room where a patient normally lived if they were staying for more than a day.

Tadakatsu's aunt had just had a baby, so he was groaning about how stupid this was. Shuya Nanahara and Yoshitoki Kuninobu were being unusually quiet. Yuichiro remembered that Shuya's parents had died in a car accident a few years ago. They'd probably been brought to a hospital like this one. Yoshitoki was probably being quiet for Shuya's sake.

At the end of the tour, the nurse was asking if there were any questions when another nurse rushed over and frantically grabbed her by the arm telling her that a junior high student was being rushed to the emergency room. They whispered with the teacher for a few seconds before the second nurse rushed off and the tour nurse turned to smile at them.

"I'm sorry, children, but it seems there's been a sudden situation, so I'm afraid I can't answer your questions. We hope you enjoyed the tour."

The head nurse rushed over to the boy being rolled in on a stretcher. He seemed to be conscious and his eyes met Yuichiro's for a second before the teacher herded him and his classmates away. Yuichiro wasn't upset, though. The boy's eyes had made him sad. They looked dead.

When he got home, he saw his older sister watching the news. When she noticed him, she turned it off. But not before Yuichiro got a glimpse of the same boy with the dead eyes.

Without knowing why, he started crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we meet the boy from Megumi's story. This was his first appearance. When I first posted the story on December 23rd, 2007, the hospital was named "Houjou Hospital" and the nurse (who was Shion) was the head nurse. First, I realized that calling it Houjou was little more than a shout out since at that point the Houjou siblings were both probably dead. As for Shion, I decided that it would make more sense for the Head Nurse to be an older woman and that a younger nurse would be more likely to give a tour to elementary school kids.


	26. Takako Chigusa - Water

Water is essential to preserve human life. This is especially true for those who participate in track. Takako Chigusa understood this better than anyone on her team. She always brought a large bottle of water to practice. To track meets, she brought two. Her coach praised her for this.

“Chigusa, you get this.” He said. “You know what you need to be able to run track.”

Her teammates didn’t quite understand, and thought she was simply sucking up. To get back at her one day, they hid her water bottle while she was stretching. When she returned to where she had set it, and found it gone.

All hell broke loose.

“Where is it!?” Takako said to herself as her voice became increasingly frantic, digging through her bag, not noticing Miyamura and Izawa giggling.  
“Where’s what?” asked one of her other teammates, what was her name? Yamada?

“I’m Nakarai!” she exclaimed in frustration. Wait, had she said that out loud?

“My water bottle.” Takako grabbed Nakarai by the shirt.  
“What are you-” Nakarai began, but was cut off by the coach walking up.

“What’s up, Chigusa?” he asked.  
"My water bottle.” Takako’s vocabulary seemed to have deteriorated to those three words.  
“What?” the coach asked. “Did you forget it?”

Takako shook her head furiously.

“Hey, weren’t Miyamura and Izawa hanging around Chigusa’s bag a few minutes ago?” One of the other girls suggested to the girl next to her.  
“What did you say, Yamada?” Takako let go of Nakarai and stared at the girl.  
“My name is Endou!”

Realizing that they could be implicated, Izawa started to slip Takako’s water bottle back into her bag. Unfortunately, she was spotted by the coach. Takako spun around when he called her name and jumped on her.

"YAMADAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"

Track practice was cancelled for that week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Out of all the stories I've written for this, this one is probably my least favorite, even when I first wrote it. It's basically just Takako flipping out in wacky anime shenanigans for no reason. It was posted on July 31st, 2008.


	27. Shou Tsukioka - My Girlfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was only one girl good enough for Shou Tsukioka.

Even before he'd understood what homosexuality was, Shou Tsukioka hadn't been interested in girls. Oh, he had plenty of girlish hobbies and enjoyed playing with girls, but the thought of marrying one in the future horrified him. The girls in his class were weak, giggling children, while the boys (who were also still children, but that's not the point) were almost all strong and tough. Immature, but tough.

Back then, there was only one girl who was ever manly enough for Shou Tsukioka: Takako Chigusa.

She wasn't like the other girls. She didn't giggle or back down when the boys teased her. She even came to rescue of her friend, Hiroki Sugimura (who was just as weak as the girls in class. _Definitely_ not manly) on more than one occasion. 

"Let's get married." Shou had suggested one day.  
"Do I know you?" She'd replied. 

So they'd gotten off to a bad start. Shou didn't give up. He gave her flowers several times a week, followed her to her home and sent love letters to the address. 

Or he did, until her family complained and his father had to sit him down and explain that that wasn't appropriate behavior. Not that it mattered, because Takako's family had moved shortly after that.

By the time they met next, Shou had come to terms with his homosexuality. Not that it made him any less delighted when he saw that they were in the same class. Or that her seat number was right before his.

"So, given any thought to my proposal yet?" He whispered to her in class one day.

She turned to look at him and it was clear she hadn't forgotten him. Admittedly, it was more of an "OH GOD, NOT YOU AGAIN" expression. 

She immediately stood up (during the lecture) and asked Mr. Hayashida for a seat transfer, a request that was denied. 

"Oh, don't be like that , honey." Shou had purred. "We might not ever be able to consummate our relationship, but doesn't mean I don't love you~"

Takako, her request for a seat transfer denied, decided to resort to her other tactic: Ignoring him.

That didn't work. Undeterred by her silence, he poked her for several days on end before one day she suggested that he try stalking one of the boys in class instead of her, since he was appearantly uninterested in "consummating" a relationship with her.

Shou glanced over at Shinji Mimura talking to his friends and grinned. If his fiancee wasn't interested in getting married and had given her blessing, well, who was he to say no?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you might have guessed, I had a lot of fun with this one. It was posted on February 1st, 2011, along with Yoshimi Yahagi's.


	28. Mayumi Tendou - Detainment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mayumi does not like closed spaces very much.

Tendou Mayumi was not having a good day. First she’d gotten a bad score on the exam, then the person she’d agreed to meet over the phone turned out to be an undercover cop. That was what she got for trying to be more like Souma Mitsuko. Mayumi didn’t exactly admire Mitsuko, she just respected Mitsuko’s utter disregard for rules and societal norms. That was why she started phone dating in the first place.

Well, this was certainly the last time Mayumi would agree to actually go to a hotel with someone. Phone sex was much safer.

It felt awkward waiting in detention for her mother. The officer who was supposed to be watching her had gone off somewhere, leaving her alone in this small room with white all over. And Mayumi did not like being trapped in small places, especially not alone.

She wasn’t claustrophobic by any stretch of the imagination; she simply got an uneasy feeling from small places. It made her feel trapped. Like there was nothing she could do but be still. Mayumi hated that feeling. The white walls didn’t help. It made her feel like she was in an asylum.

Mayumi knew that she was sane. So if the white walls of the detainment room made her feel like she’d go crazy, how would an actual crazy person react? Mayumi shuddered at the thought.

Just as Mayumi began to think she would snap, she heard a commotion. She glanced out the window on the door to see a rowdy young man being escorted into the building by an officer.

Oh. So _that’s_ where the cop watching her had gone.

As the officer and the boy moved closer to the door, Mayumi realized that the boy was in fact her classmate, Yamamoto Kazuhiko.

Mayumi gave a small smirk as she sat back down. Well, it wasn't much, but it was one way to cure boredom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we find out why Mayumi had been arrested. We'll find out the specifics of how Kazuhiko got arrested in his part. This one was posted on April 23rd, 2012, along with Keita Iijima's.


	29. Shuuya Nanahara - Unbelievable

Shuuya figured a lot of things were possible.

 

One of things he didn't think possible, however, was Mimura's death.

Mimura Shinji was one of the most amazing people Shuuya had met. He was smart, athletic, funny... Basically, what every girl wants, and what every guy wants to be. Shuuya was happy and honored to call him his friend.

Another thing that Shuuya liked about Mimura was that it seemed like he could do anything. Nothing Shuuya thought of (within the realm of reality, of course) seemed impossible if he thought about Mimura doing it. Hacking a computer to get whatever information they needed? Of course Mimura could do that. Smashing the government? Shuuya could definitely see that happening. Getting everyone out of the Program? This _is_ Mimura Shinji we're talking about.

And yet, here he was, lying in the wake of a bomb he'd created. Not speaking, not moving... Not breathing. And that was what struck Shuuya the most. If there was one thing he'd thought he'd never imagined, it was Mimura dying before him. Of the two of them, Mimura was smarter than Shuuya. Mimura was stronger than Shuuya. If nothing else, Shuuya believed, no, _wanted_ Mimura to make it out of this game alive.

It just didn't seem fair. Anyone could see that Mimura was supposed to make something of himself. Shuuya, meanwhile, was going to either become a rock star rebel or get thrown in jail before he could. So why was Shuuya still alive while Mimura wasn't? It wasn't fair. At the very least, Shuuya should have died before Mimura had.

He was aware that there had been some rumors circulating about the relationship between the two of them, but he hadn't given it much thought. After all, there had been similar rumors about him and Nobu just a few years earlier. He just shrugged it off and let people think what they wanted to think. Hell, Mimura had never even called Shuuya by his first name! There was no reason to think there was any truth to them, at least not on Mimura's side.

Shuuya was beginning to wonder if there wasn't at least a little bit of truth to the rumors. At the very least, it seemed to be something to believe in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was writing these, I decided early on that Shuuya was going to be the last one I did. I finally posted his on June 5th, 2012, five years after I first posted Yutaka's.


	30. Noriko Nakagawa - Guard Dogs

Noriko was glad that Yukie and Haruka were her friends. Really, she was.

Having been picked on by several other girls in other classes, Noriko was elated when Yukie first approached her to ask if she wanted to walk home with her and Haruka. She was delighted when Haruka had said “See you tomorrow!” as she entered her house. Imagine her joy when Yukie invited her for a sleepover, where she was formally introduced to Yuka, Satomi and a few of Yukie’s other friends. Yes, Noriko cared for her friends very much.

Still, even girls like Yukie and Haruka had their individual traits that Noriko disliked. But the one quirk that bothered Noriko the most was one that Yukie and Haruka shared.

Yukie and Haruka weren’t naïve. They didn’t think that the reason Noriko didn’t have any friends was because she was too shy to reach out to people. They were well-aware that Noriko was being picked on. Naturally, they made it their duty to put a stop to it. But sometimes they went a bit too far.

One morning, Noriko met Shuya and Nobu on her way to school. They decided to walk together, all the while having a friendly chat about Shuya’s music. This did not go unnoticed by some of Shuya’s fans. Shortly before class started, some of them called her out. Despite her insistence that they bumped into each other by coincidence, they continued badgering her. Finally, a voice from behind the girls said “Hey!”

Standing at 172 centimeters, Haruka looked very intimidating when she towered over the shorter girls. She looked even more frightening when she was towering over the shorter girls with a scowl on her face. When Noriko looked up, for a moment she thought that the evil being Yuko always talked about had appeared. What had she called him? Stan?

“She SAID that they bumped into each other by chance, didn’t she?” Haruka demanded as she glared menacingly at the fan girls.

Before the girls could reply, Yukie walked in front of Haruka and gave the girls an eerily blank look.

“The bell will be ringing soon. I would advise you to get to class.” she said coldly.

For some reason, Noriko half-expected the girls to be struck by lightning. Instead, having been confronted by a class rep, the girls ran in the opposite direction, with Yukie still gazing at them while Haruka focused her attention on Noriko.

“Did those girls hurt you?” Haruka gave Noriko a concerned look before pulling her into a hug.

Noriko did not respond, as she was still stunned by her friends’ behavior. The way they overreacted, the way the fan girls reacted to the intimidation… It reminded Noriko of one of those shoujo manga that Satomi read when she thought no one was looking.

Sometimes when they walked down the hallway, Yukie and Haruka would walk in front of her like bodyguards for some important celebrity. This embarrassed Noriko because people stared.

One night after such a day, Noriko was sitting in her bed and staring out the window thinking about it. Noriko had always been a sweet girl, but even she had her limits. In the deep corners of her mind, she thought to herself, “If I wanted guard dogs, I’d have gotten an actual dog!”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yukie and Haruka's confronting the girls bullying Noriko is a shout out to the first chapter of Fruits Basket. This story was first posted on July 17th, 2007.


	31. Kazushi Niida - The Ghettos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiriyama's gang had nothing on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another one I don't have much to say about. It was posted on July 14th, 2011.

Kazushi fancied himself a rather tough guy. He could totally take on Kiriyama and his gang. He just had his own reasons for not doing so.

Kazushi understood the underground of the city. There were places for men to earn their living in this area and places for women to earn their living. Bitches and whores and all that. His mother happened to be one of them. Kazushi had, on more than one occasion, accidentally walked in on her when she was "serving" a customer. Yeah, that was more than a little awkward. Why she didn't bother going to a hotel was anyone's guess. If the "customers" were paying her, then surely they'd be able to afford a hotel room? Now that Kazushi thought about it, he'd never seen any of his mother's "customers" give her money.

He didn't really understand what his father did for a living other than that he was a "very nice man". Kazushi thought about asking what he thought about his mother's work, but decided that would be a bad idea, for whatever the reason.

Kazushi met all kinds of strange people in the area where he lived. Some of the people were illegal immigrants (why did they come to a country that was a totalitarian dictatorship? Who knows?), some were being raised by single parents (one of his classmates, Kotohiki Kayoko, was being raised by a single mother, but she didn't fall into that category. Her parents weren't married, but her father took care of her and her mother, as she vehemently explained when Kazushi brought this up). 

Now that Kazushi thought about it, he thought he'd seen Tendou Mayumi in that area once or twice. Weird.

It wasn't entirely uncommon for Kazushi to hear gunshots ringing late at night. When he was little, he'd count the number of gunshots he'd hear in one night. He'd wonder what was going on, the circumstances behind whatever was happening. As he got older, he stopped wondering. The gunshots were simply a part of his life. There was no need to concern himself over them.

You'd think being used to gunfire would have prepared Kazushi for the Program, but it didn't. He barely held back from screaming when he saw the corpse of his teacher, and he didn't bother holding back when Kuninobu was shot. Huh. Wasn't he supposed to be some tough guy? Still, that didn't stop him from killing Akamatsu as soon as he left, so maybe his home life did him _some_ good (if you can call it that).

Only a little, though.


	32. Yuka Nakagawa - Shoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did include a very blatant shout out to "Shoes" by Kelly. This was posted on March 16th, 2010, along with Yoshitoki Kuninobu's.

“Let’s get some shoes.”

Satomi Noda and Yuko Sakaki stared at their friend as though she’d lost her mind. Yuka Nakagawa noticed this and pouted.

“What?” She demanded. “You were the ones just sitting there saying “I’m bo-ored”. I give a suggestion and suddenly I’m the weirdo?”

Satomi and Yuko both realized she had a point and blushed. Yukie had Student Council duties, Haruka had volleyball practice, Noriko was going to a funeral, Izumi was attending some charity dinner with her family, Fumiyo and Mayumi were off doing God-knows-what and Chisato disappeared (as she was often prone to doing).

“I’m right here.” Chisato sighed exasperatedly. “I understand that I’m not very memorable to strangers, but do you guys have to pretend I don’t exist, too?”  
“Well, we might as well.” Satomi nodded, slipping her textbook (cleverly disguising her issue of Hana to Yume) into her bag.

Yuko eagerly nodded.

They’d run into Mitsuko and her friends at the store. Prior to this, Yuka had no idea that she and Mitsuko shared the same shoe size. She found this out while she and Mitsuko were eyeing the same pair of shoes. In a coincidence so strange that Satomi was convinced that it wouldn’t look out of place in a manga, it happened to be the only pair remaining in that size.

Mitsuko and Yuka glared at each other.

“Those shoes are mine, bitch.” Mitsuko said coldly.  
“Like hell.” Yuka snapped back.  
“Ladies, we can order more.” The store clerk explained nervously. She was well aware of Mitsuko Souma’s reputation and the girl she was arguing with did not appear to be a pushover.

“Or we could just, you know, go to a different store!” Satomi whispered to Yuka.  
“Can we even afford them?” Yuko noted.

Yoshimi looked rather uncomfortable and Hirono just looked bored.

“I doubt it.” Mitsuko scoffed.  
“At least any money I have, I got legally!” Yuka shouted back.

It was during this rather tense moment that another lady walked by, purchased the shoes and left the store. Mitsuko glared at Yuka as though it were her fault and stormed out of the store, Yoshimi and Hirono in tow.

And so, the battle between Mitsuko Souma and Yuka Nakagawa was delayed… for now.

“I’m surprised that we ran into them.” Yuko said as they departed for home, not having made any (shoe) purchases.  
“Don’t you now, Yuko?” Yuka gave her friend a surprised look. “Shoes are what unite the women of the world. There isn‘t a women alive who doesn‘t love shoes.”  
“Hmm…” Satomi mumbled to herself as she read a manga about a Zodiac martial artist that was always barefoot, even in school.

“We’ll just have to try again tomorrow!” Yuka declared happily.

“You're joking, right? I’m never going shoe shopping with you again.” Chisato declared, but was ignored.


	33. Mitsuru Numai - The Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitsuru wouldn't admit it. Ever.

There was absolutely no way Mitsuru would ever admit it to anyone, especially not the Boss. What 15-year-old boy in this day and age was still afraid of the dark? So he hid his fear. And he hid it well.

Going to the arcade at night with the gang, helping the Boss beat up yakuza during late night dealings in an alley… Yes, Mitsuru did a good job of hiding his fear. Still, he couldn’t help but shudder every time sunset came around.

One night after bidding his fellow gang members farewell, he took a shortcut home. As much as he disliked walking through a dark alley at night, it was the fastest way home. And the sooner he got home, the sooner he’d be out of the darkness. He walked by a trashcan, not paying much attention to it.

Suddenly, Mitsuru heard a scratching noise from it. He slowly turned to look at it.

The trashcan was shaking. Mitsuru started to slowly back away when it fell over. Then turned around and ran full speed until he was out of the alley. Not looking where he was going, he crashed into someone. Judging from the surprised gasp, it was a girl.

Mitsuru stood and looked at her. It was a girl in his class. Her seat number was right before Ryuhei’s. He decided to help her up.

The girl seemed to recognize him. 

“Um… I’m in your class. Yuko Sakaki. Are you… Mitsuru?” She bowed. “If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask why you were running?”

Not wanting to tell Yuko that he’d gotten scared, Mitsuru tried to drop the subject the only way he knew how.

“What’s it to you?” he snapped. Yuko flinched, but noticed the alley behind him.  
“Is there something in the alley?” she peered behind him. “Now that I think about it, I thought I heard something crash…”

She pulled a rosary out of her pocket.

“Lord, should my curiosity lead to my death,” she gulped. “Thy will be done. I shall take it for my sins.”

Before Mitsuru could stop her, she walked into the alley. About thirty seconds later, a cat ran out, shortly followed by Yuko.

“I guess the Yamashita family’s cat got out.” She turned to Mitsuru. “Do you live around here, Mitsuru?”  
“Uh… yeah, on the other side of this apartment building.”  
“Really? I do too.” Yuko stared at him curiously before saying, “If you’re scared, we can walk together.”  
“S-scared!?” Mitsuru blushed. “Why would I be…” He started mumbling, finding his feet fascinating.

Yuko looked thoughtful for a moment before walking closer.

“Um, would you mind bending your arm a little?” she asked shyly.

Mitsuru was confused but complied. Yuko slid her arm through.

“Shall we go?”

Mitsuru blushed again. Nevertheless, he began walking. Had anyone from their class seen them, they would have seen Mitsuru Numai escorting Yuko Sakaki down the sidewalk, as any gentleman would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: When I wrote that Yuko's seat number was right before Ryuhei's, I'd totally forgotten that she had the same seat number as Hiroshi. I don't know if this is before Hiroshi joined the group or if Mitsuru just forgot about Hiroshi. This was posted with Mitsuko Souma's on August 17th, 2007.


	34. Satomi Noda - Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike the previous crossovers I've hinted at, this one is with Angel Beats and it's a lot more blatant. Don't worry, you don't have to have watched it. The story was posted on May 30th, 2012 with Hiroshi Kuronaga's.

The afterlife wasn't what Satomi had expected.

She wasn't quite sure what she _had_ been expecting the afterlife to be like, but it certainly wasn't a high school campus.

And she certainly hadn't expected to arrive in the midst of a battle between several high school students. Satomi had felt herself groan. It figured that she would go from one instance of students killing each other to another. The situation seemed strange, though. It appeared to be several students attacking one girl, rather than everyone fighting each other.

"Noda, she's distracted!" A girl wearing a headband and a hat (who seemed to be the leader) barked. "You need to strike now!"

Satomi was confused. What did the girl want her to do? It wasn't until a boy who appeared to have purple hair stood up with a halberd in his hands and a grin on his face.

"Sure thing, Yurippe!" He exclaimed before charging.

The battle had ended in a failure to kill the girl, but Satomi eventually got an explanation: She was in the afterlife, all right, and the group led by Nakamura Yuri (nicknamed "Yurippe") was rebelling against God for giving them such short lives. The girl they had been fighting was the Student Council President, Angel, who worked for God and was trying to force them to behave like normal students.

Satomi was not the only person from her class who had ended up there.

Among them were Izumi, Fumiyo, Shimizu Hirono and Yahagi Yoshimi... It seemed like at least half the class had shown up.

Surprisingly, Yuka was nowhere to be seen. Chisato was, however, and it had taken both Matsushita and Takamatsu, two of the strongest boys in Yuri's group to pull them off of each other.

It wasn't like Satomi had wanted to kill her. She'd panicked. And it wasn't like she didn't feel guilty about it. It didn't really occur to her just how easy it was to kill someone until she'd shot Chisato.

"Alright, I don't care how your lives ended!" Yuri had shouted as the two of them struggled to get out of Matsushita and Takamatsu's holds. "It doesn't change the fact that you're dead, and you're here now!"

It was true. Fighting and killing each other now wouldn't do either of them any good (plus, if what they'd been told was true, they'd just revive within a few minutes).

Yuri offered to accept Satomi and her fellow students of class 3-B into the Afterlife Battlefront.

"Everyone seems pretty friendly..." Fumiyo whispered to Satomi as they discussed whether or not to accept. "And I admit, I _am_ pretty mad about how abruptly I was killed."  
"Yoji and I were just talking about how we'd try to escape together!" Yoshimi pounded her fist into her other hand. "Right, Yoji?"

Kuramoto Yoji nodded.

It was strange how easily Satomi agreed to join. She'd always been a bit of a stickler for the rules, always studying to get into a good high school, good college, etc.

But that future had been taken away from her. She could no longer read manga, or study, or get into high school or college. She couldn't grow up, meet a wonderful man and get married or have children. All because fate had placed her class in the Program.

Well, if life wouldn't accept Noda Satomi, she might as well have some fun in the afterlife.


	35. Tadakatsu Hatagami - Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, families. Can't live 'em, can't live without 'em.

Not many people knew it, but Tadakatsu held his teachers in high regard, and not just because his mother told him to. Both of his parents came from big families, and while Tadakatsu himself was an only child, his cousins weren't. He had many relatives with small children living in the area. And for reasons Tadakatsu couldn't comprehend, both the Hatagami family and the Yokomichi family had this weird traditon of meeting up every couple months.

Not to mention the fact that his aunts and uncles frequently visited. As a result, Tadakatsu often found himself forced to play with his younger cousins. Said cousins were often prone to getting into his things, something that really got under Tadakatsu's skin. Just the week before, he'd left his five-year-old cousin alone in his room while he went to make a sandwich for her. When he returned five minutes later, she'd somehow torn his baseball glove up.

"Tadakatsu!" His mother scolded when Chidori ran down the stairs crying that Tadakatsu had (mildly) (as gently as he could) hit her on the head. "You need to be more careful with children!"  
"Tell her to be more careful with other peoples' things!" Tadakatsu had protested.  
"Children make mistakes, Tada-chan." His Aunt Chiyoko scolded gently as she rubbed her daughter's head, using the nickname Tadakatsu hated. "You can't get angry at them for that."

 _But if you don't get angry at them, how will they learn to respect others?_ That was the sort of thing Tadakatsu was thinking as his mother warned him that if it happened again, she wouldn't let him go on the study trip.

"Hey, it happens." Sasagawa shrugged when he heard Tadakatsu retelling the story to Yuichiro the following day. "Kids do that stuff."

Dealing with children that were related to him was tough enough (and what did Sasagawa know about dealing with kids anyway?). Tadakatsu can hardly imagine dealing with kids that weren't related to him for a living. As a result, he holds teachers in very high regard, particularly Mr. Hayashida, who admitted to having grown up with several younger siblings.

"I don't get it." Tadakatsu scoffed. "I can't see why anyone who grew up with THAT could ever want to be a teacher!"  
"You'll understand when you're older." Mr. Hayashida grinned as he pulled out a picture of his family. There were several people (and Tadakatsu could clearly see a younger Hayashida wearing a proud smile) ranging from elementary school age to high school age.

"Sometimes things happen..." Mr. Hayashida continued. "And the person you once knew is gone forever."

At that moment, Tadakatsu's eyes landed on one of the older girls. She was different from the others, with her bandages and a crutch. There was a smile on her face, but... it didn't look like her eyes were smiling at all.  
"Tatsuko committed suicide a few weeks after that photo was taken." Mr. Hayashida said quietly. "She couldn't cope with what had happened to her. What she'd done..."  
Tadakatsu wasn't sure what to say. Mr. Hayashida patted him on the shoulder.  
"Cherish your younger cousins." He said firmly. "They're the closest thing you have to younger siblings."

Tadakatsu had to admit that Mr. Hayashida had a point. You never knew when something would happen and you end up outliving someone who you expected to outlive you. That's the other thing Tadakatsu liked about teachers. Sometimes they taught you things you thought were obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Yokomichi" is Tadakatsu's mother's maiden name. I took it from Satoshi Yokomichi, who played Tadakatsu in the film version of Battle Royale. As for Tadakatsu's conflict with his family, I'm personally on the fence. You should certainly teach kids to be careful with the belongings of others, but you definitely shouldn't be smacking them around when they mess up, and especially not out of anger. All it does is make them afraid to be honest when something bad happens. This story was posted on November 8th, 2010.


	36. Fumiyo Fujiyoshi - Carnage

Truth be told, Fumiyo hated blood and violence.

"Then why the hell did you become the health representative?" You may be asking yourself. And really, Fumiyo wouldn't have an answer. Maybe she volunteered because she had three younger siblings and was used to taking care of people. Maybe she wanted to overcome her fear.

Maybe she was possessed by Ahura Mazda, Fumiyo didn't know.

When she'd told her mother the news, she was a bit concerned. Fumiyo witnessed a car accident as a child (incidentally, Shuuya Nanahara witnessed the same accident, although neither of them knew this) and had developed a paralyzing fear of blood ever since, but her mother encouraged her to try to get over her fear.

Yuko (who shared the same fear) was impressed and wished that she could be more like Fumiyo.

To Fumiyo's relief, she found that she seldom had to deal with blood. The jocks, like Tatsumichi Ooki (a really calm guy, Fumiyo noted when he came in one day) were the ones who most often got injured, and they didn't always end up bleeding when they did. Kazuo Kiriyama's gang never came in to get their injuries checked out (did they think wearing their injuries and scars on their sleeves made them tough?), while Mitsuko Souma's group only came in once seeking condoms, leaving as soon as Fumiyo assured them that there were none (pre-marital sex: not something the government smiles at). 

Eventually, Fumiyo began to enjoy being the health rep. Her classmates came in for all kinds of things, whether it was a bandaid or getting some rest from a cold. Fumiyo began to learn at least a little about everyone (for example, Satomi Noda would occasionally use "anemia" as an excuse to ditch class and read manga in one of the beds, while Shogo Kawada refuses to take powdered medicine).

At some point, Fumiyo got the hang of dealing with blood. There was just her fear of violence. Unfortunately, the situation that would have most prepared her to deal with violence was the one she dreaded the most.

She didn't scream when she saw Mr. Hayashida's corpse. She didn't scream when Yoshitoki Kuninobu was shot. She just sat there, paralyzed, her mouth hanging open, the scream on her lips refusing to leave. She couldn't really understand what was going on around her. It all seemed to be spinning around in an incomprehensible mess. Finally, when she felt numb, she regained her ability to think.

 _Don't panic._ She thought to herself. _That's what they want. Just... Just talk to your friends. Yukie's right behind you. You'll get through this._

She took a deep breath and leaned back toward her friend.

"Psst... Yuki."

Unfortunately, my friends, that is where Fumiyo's story ends. She never got a chance to leave the classroom and meet with her friends, although perhaps it's for the best. If you were to tell Fumiyo what ultimately became of her friends, she might call her fate a cruel blessing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the novel, Shuuya mentions witnessing a little girl get hit by a car. Fumiyo is one of those characters that's it hard to get a grasp on her character because we learn so little about her. This story was posted on January 20th, 2011.  
> 


	37. Shinji Mimura - Murderer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just what is "murder", anyway?

Mimura Shinji had thought the term “murder” was very subjective. Logically, it referred to the unlawful killing of another person. If someone was killed in self-defense, it was just that: A killing. If someone was killed by the government, it was an execution (or at least within the realm of the law).

Ha!

That was a laugh.

The government hadn’t bothered to really investigate Shuuya’s parents before they’d been in a “car accident”. They hadn’t bothered to investigate Ogawa Seiichi before they’d gone to his house and shot him in front of his family.

(Oh yes. Shinji knew about Sakura’s father. The Ogawa family were neighbors of one of his relatives, and he’d heard one of them gossip about it with his mother. Jeez, didn’t the family have a right to grieve without their neighbors blabbing about it?)

And of course, there was his uncle. Shinji had to admit, there might have been more evidence to show that his uncle was involved in illegal activities against the government. But that was no reason to shoot him in his own bar.

For all his intelligence, there were certain aspects of the world that Shinji saw in black and white. There were some killings that were justified, but what had been done to his uncle, Shuuya’s parents, and Sakura’s father were not among them.

Shinji isn’t sure what made him think of that as he saw Keita’s body fall. Then again, he’d just killed someone. He really shouldn’t be that surprised.

It had been an accident. He hadn’t meant to shoot him. His aim had been thrown off. He was worried about Yutaka’s safety. He’d thought that Keita meant them harm. So what if he’d thrown his knife away? You’d be surprised at how much damage you can do with just your hands, even if Keita was a wimp who couldn’t punch to save his life. Yes, killing him had been entirely justified.

So why did part of Shinji feel like he was just making excuses?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shinji's killing of Keita in the manga and novel is more or less an accident, but it was one that could have easily been avoided. Second rule of gun safety: Don't point your gun at something unless you've already decided to shoot it. Shooting a gun in the direction of someone to scare them is right out. This was posted on April 2nd, 2012.


	38. Chisato Matsui - Existence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes Chisato wondered what she was here for.

Chisato never really stood out in her group of friends. Yukie was the leader with Haruka as second-in-command. Satomi had the brains and Yuka was the clown. Izumi was the rich girl who wasn't conceited, Fumiyo was the "big sister", and Mayumi was the prim, proper lady (Chisato never really believed the rumors about her phone dating). Noriko was the sweet girl and Yuko was the adorable little sister that everyone wanted to protect.

But where did that leave Chisato? What was her purpose in the group? Sure, she was good at cooking, but so was Haruka. And besides, Chisato was really only good at making actual meals, and the girls almost never did that together. Most of the time, if they ate anything, it was sweets, and that was Noriko's specialty.

Before she met Shinji Mimura in junior high, she had a crush on a boy at her elementary school. One day, she left something in the classroom and went back to get it. The boy was talking to his friends and she heard him call her "plain". She hadn't even told him how she felt and he broke her heart.

When she relayed her concerns to Fumiyo, who went to the same school, Fumiyo said not to let it get to her. That she was special. That's fine, but why was she special? What was the one thing that set her apart from the other girls? Yuka said the same thing. So did Noriko and Yukie and Mayumi.

When Satomi accused her of poisoning Yuka, Chisato panicked. Was this it? Was she destined to go down as the girl who betrayed her best friends, something Chisato would never do?

No.

Not here. Not now.

That was why Chisato grabbed the gun. She decided it was time to show the world just what she was made of. And she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Taguchi manga has Chisato freak out, grab the gun, and point it at Satomi. The film just spirals into a big mess. Meanwhile, in the novel, we don't actually know what Chisato means to do before Satomi shoots her. The Angel's Border manga has her moving to grab the gun on the table to throw it out the window in the hopes that Satomi will come to her senses, but that's not necessarily true for the novel (plus, I wrote this on December 3rd, 2007, while the Angel's Border manga began serialization in 2011).


	39. Kyoichi Motobuchi - Witness

Kyoichi had seen a lot of things in life.

He'd seen his first crush, Izumi Kanai at a dinner party to celebrate her father's election. Because they went to different schools, however, he never saw her again until junior high. By then, he'd forgotten all about it.

He'd seen people hugging and kissing and having sex (courtesy of the one time he'd walked in on his parents in fifth grade). He'd seen his father yell at his older brother for getting a bad grade on a test. He didn't see the signs on the sign during physicals which led to him getting glasses. The first time he saw someone get a better score was in sixth grade. The person was Satomi Noda. This started a sort of rivalry between them. Yuichiro Takiguchi called them both "tsundere" in regards to each other. Kyoichi assumed it was some sort of anime term. It was pointless for him to care. He did feel some unease when he heard Yuka Nakagawa agree, though.

The first person he saw die was Yoshitoki Kuninobu. The cause was a bullet to the head. The second was Fumiyo Fujiyoshi. Cause: Knife to the forehead.

The first people he saw after leaving the building were Tatsumichi Ooki and Shuuya Nanahara. Tatsumichi was dead. It was obvious that Shuuya had killed him. Kyoichi didn't see anyone else around. He didn't see a weapon in Shuuya's hands. He clearly stood no chance against Kyouichi's gun. If things kept going like this, Kyouichi would be able to see a lot more things.

Kyoichi didn't see Shogo Kawada.

He never saw his brother get married. He never saw his father forced to resign in disgrace for making anti-Program remarks in the following months. He never saw his mother commit suicide from the stress. He never saw the birth of his twin nieces.

He never saw anything outside of the perfection he sought to achieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Motobuchi strikes me as one of the types who could be rather pleasant outside of the Program, but snapped from the pressure. This was written on on January 5th, 2009, along with Hiroki Sugimura's.


	40. Kaori Minami - One From Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaori wasn't much of a dancer.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

No one was quite sure what just happened. One moment, they'd woken up in strange classroom with collars around their necks, the next Shuuya Nanahara had suddenly jumped on his desk and started dancing on it. How he managed to not fall is anyone's guess.

At that moment, music began to blare from a few seats away from where Kaori's friend Megumi was sitting. Yoshitoki Kuninobu had pulled a boombox out (from where?) and turned it on. 

It was one of those loud, peppy songs that you might hear on the radio on a Sunday afternoon. The singer was a pop star who had recently done a collaboration with Junya, Kaori thought to herself. She called herself Flandre Remilia, or something foreign. 

The song had one of those beats that you can't help but want to dance to. Before long, Shuuya's other friends (save Hiroki Sugimura, who looked embarrassed) had gotten up and started dancing. Yukie Utsumi stood up with a grin and her friends followed suit.

Chisato Matsui's face turned red when Mimura asked if she wanted to dance with a sly look on his face. 

Kazuo Kiriyama just watched. The members of his gang just looked at each other, unsure if it was okay to join in.

Mitsuko Souma remained seated while Yoshimi Yahagi walked over to where her boyfriend was sitting. Hirono Shimizu just watched with a grin on her face.

Megumi looked unsure of herself and Mizuho didn't seem interested. Kaori herself didn't care much for singer, so she just pulled a magazine out of her bag and started reading.

For a few minutes, she was undisturbed. However, halfway through the article about the kind of girl Junya liked, someone had tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see the embarrassed face of Yuichiro Takiguchi.

"Eheh..." He said, looking away. "I'm not that much of a dancer, but you wanna give it a try?"

Kaori looked around the room. Quite a few things had changed since she'd started reading.

Yoshimi Yahagi and Yoji Kuramoto were dancing... if you could call it that. It looked more like Yoshimi was dragging him all around the room while he tried to keep up with her movements. Mitsuko Souma seemed to be rubbing herself against Tadakatsu Hatagami, who seemed a bit receptive. Shou Tsukioka was attempting to do the same to Mitsuru Numai, who was less so.

Kazuo Kiriyama... My God... Was he _breakdancing_?

Kaori tried desperately to purge the image from her mind. She turned to Takiguchi, who was still waiting for her reply.

"I'm not much of a dancer either." She said seriously.  
"I don't mind." He grinned.

When Yonemi Kamon finally arrived at the classroom where the designated class was waiting, desks and chairs were strewn about, loud music was playing, and Kaori Minami and Yuichiro Takiguchi were in the midst of a bizarre cross between the tango and the waltz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is rather silly, but I actually kind of like it. It was posted on March 18th, 2011, which was actually my 20th birthday.


	41. Kazuhiko Yamamoto - Blasphemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuhiko happened to be one of those doting boyfriends.

Few, if any, of Kazuhiko and Sakura's classmates would have been surprised if the two ended up married when they grew up. There were even rumors of a betting pool that they'd get married right out of junior high. It was clear that they were madly in love.

There was only one other couple in their class, and Kazuhiko happened to share a seat number with one half of them. As a result, he and Yoshimi Yahagi would often gush over their respective significant others to each other (though Kazuhiko heard that Yoji didn't like that very much. There were rumors flying around about Yoshimi's sexual history and Yoji wasn't all that comfortable with her speaking so familiarly with other guys). 

The two couples had once attempted to go on a double-date, and it had gone rather poorly. It had been going fine until they'd gotten into the movie theatre and taken their seats. Kazuhiko couldn't quite remember what Yoji had said, but the next thing he knew, the two of them were both covered in soda. Yoshimi had started yelling and they were asked to leave. Once outside, Sakura had demanded to know what had gotten into her. Yoshimi whispered into Sakura's and comprehension dawned on her face. Sakura looked over Yoshimi and her eyes widened. She whispered something into Yoshimi's ear and the latter started crying.

"I just bought this skirt!" 

"What's wrong?" Yoji had asked.

"Don't worry, we can get the stain out." Sakura tried to calm Yoshimi as she took off her jacket and wrapped it around her waist. "Sorry, Kaz, Kuramoto-kun, we're gonna have to cut it short. I have to take Yoshimi to my house to take care of some... womanly troubles."  
"What sort of-"  
"Never you mind, Kaz." Sakura shot him a warning look. "I'll see you at school tomorrow!"

After an awkward pause, he and Yoji parted ways.

"Man, was that Ogawa at the movie theatre?" Kazuhiko heard a young man's voice say suddenly and his ears perked up.  
"Who's Ogawa?" A girl's voice asked suspiciously. "One of those girls who we saw get kicked out?"  
"Just some girl I knew from kindergarten." The guy laughed. "Hey Tanemura, remember Sakura Ogawa, from kindergarten?"

Another guy laughed.

"Oh yeah. That chick was psycho!"  
"Like, she once punched a guy for-"

Kazuhiko didn't hear what he was about to say. He'd only heard the second guy insult his Sakura. No one says anything bad about Sakura on his watch. He quickly threw a punch. It made contact fast and hard. The next few minutes were a blur. Kazuhiko may have gotten hit a few times (there were three guys, after all), but he was so full of adrenaline that he didn't really notice. Finally, he felt someone stronger and bigger pull him back. When Kazuhiko turned to glare at who it was, he realized it was a police officer.

"And that's how I got here." Kazuhiko finished telling his story to one Mayumi Tendou, who was obviously trying (and failing) to hold back her laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The incident the guy was about to talk about was the one mentioned in Sakura's story. Though we often get offended when we get angry and someone asks if we're having our period, there are women who do get like Yoshimi when theirs happens. This was posted on December 17th, 2010.


	42. Yoshimi Yahagi - My Milkshake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My whipped ice dairy drink brings the attention of many males to my place of residence.

Yoshimi loved milkshakes. Especially in the summer, when the hot rays of the sun were merciless. The only trouble with milkshakes in the summer was, if you were outside, you had to drink them quickly or they'd melt. And liquid chocolate/vanilla/strawberry just wasn't as tasty as when it was still relatively frozen. 

Mitsuko hadn't ordered a milkshake like Yoshimi had, at least not at first. However, when she'd noticed that there were several boys were checking Yoshimi out, she'd gotten a thoughtful look on her face before ordering one of her own.

After that, Mitsuko started getting milkshakes a lot when they went out. Yoshimi had thought it was nice that Mitsuko understood how tasty milkshakes were.

"I don't think that's it Yoshimi." Hirono shook her head.

Yoshimi often got milkshakes when she and Yoji went out. Yoji had (gently) teased her that if she wasn't careful, it'd all go to her thighs. Yoshimi had (shyly) suggested that he take half the calories away and grabbed two straws. That had been one of the most romantic moments of their relationship, Yoshimi had decided when she got home that night. 

Hirono had laughed when she heard the story. 

"Good going, Yoshimi!" she chuckled as she gave Yoshimi a pat on the back. "You really know how to keep your boyfriend in line!"  
"Keep him in line?" Yoshimi gave her a confused look. "I just wanted to share one with him. How would that keep him line?"

Hirono just grinned and took a sip of her soda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the last of them (though not the last chronologically). Like Yoshimi, I love milkshakes. This was posted with Shou Tsukioka's on February 1st, 2011.


End file.
